SOVIET OFFICIAL SAYS GERMAN PILOT MAY BE SENT HOME UNPUNISHED

Mathias Rust, the 19-year-old West German whose aerial escapade set off a purge of the Soviet military, may be allowed to go home without standing trial, a Soviet spokesman said today.

Valentin M. Falin, former Ambassador to West Germany and now chief of the official Novosti press feature syndicate, said the young pilot would probably not be punished for flying a single-engine plane across the heavily defended Soviet frontier and landing it Thursday near the Kremlin.

''On the one side, he will be thanked, that he made us aware of the gaps in our air defense system,'' Mr. Falin told a West German newspaper. His remarks were confirmed tonight by an aide in Moscow. 'Will Soon See His Parents'

''It could be that he will have to appear in court - that would be normal in such a case,'' Mr. Falin told the paper, Hamburger Morgenpost, in an interview to be published in its Monday issue. ''But I assume that the young man will soon see his parents and friends.''

A deputy to Mr. Falin said tonight that the Novosti chief meant that Mr. Rust might be required to come to court to have the charges read to him, but that he would be allowed to leave ''before a trial.''

The deputy stressed that this was ''Mr. Falin's opinion,'' but the Novosti editor is regarded as a confidante of Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the Soviet leader, and a man who choses his words carefully. Meeting With Rust Promised

West German diplomats have not seen Mr. Rust since he was detained in Red Square shortly after landing near there about 7 P.M. Thursday. A West German Embassy spokesman said today that German diplomats met Soviet officials on Saturday at the Foreign Ministry and that they had been promised a meeting with Mr. Rust ''at the beginning of the week.''

The German spokesman said that Mr. Rust had been arrested but that no specific charges had been brought against him. He said the embassy had not been told where the young man was being held or by what agency.

Meanwhile, Western analysts tried to piece together details of the air defense breakdown that enabled Mr. Rust to cross more than 400 miles of Soviet airspace unimpeded. Signs of Human Failure

Initial signs were that the failure was human not technological.

Mr. Falin said that Soviet radar had picked up the Cessna 172 crossing the border of the Estonian Republic from Finland, but that the military ''presumed it was a Soviet plane and did not attempt to identify it.''

Later, according to the account made public by the Politburo Saturday night, air force jets twice ''flew around'' the intruding Cessna. But the air defense commanders showed ''intolerable unconcern and indecision about cutting short the flight of the violator plane without resorting to combat means,'' the Politburo said.

What remains unclear is whether Soviet air defense forces persisted in misidentifying the plane, lost track of it or simply could not make up their minds to force it down.

Western military analysts said it was quite possible that Soviet jets, flying at speeds several times that of the 130-mile-an-hour Cessna and trying to detect its form amid the visual ''clutter'' of trees and towns, could have sped past the small plane and lost it.

Mr. Rust's five-hour trip led to the retirement of the Soviet Defense Minister, Marshal Sergei L. Sokolov, and the dismissal of the air defense commander, Marshal Aleksandr I. Koldunov, after a Politburo meeting Saturday.

Western analysts said other senior military officials were almost certain to lose their jobs in coming days. The commanders of the Baltic military district, where Mr. Rust entered Soviet air space, and the Moscow military district, were the plane landed, were considered to be in jeopardy.

As Mr. Rust remained in custody and presumably under interrogation today, the motives for his audacious flight were still unknown.

Klaus Neubert, the West German Embassy official, said tonight that the Bonn Government had no independent confirmation of Mr. Falin's remark that Mr. Rust would be given lenient treatment. 'We Just Don't Know'

''It is obvious that he entered Soviet airspace without authorization, and that he landed on a city square, not an airport,'' Mr. Neubert said. ''But as far as what consequences follow from that, we just don't know.''

''The wish on our side is to help this young fellow as well and as far as we can,'' he said. More Amused Than Indignant

Mr. Rust's flight may have caused little joy in the Politburo, but on Red Square, near the patch of central Moscow he chose as his personal runway, the reaction today to his exploit was more amused than indignant.

''Maybe he just came here for fun,'' a 23-year-old Moscow woman speculated. ''He was very courageous and determined. If he flew through the Soviet border, he must not have been afraid of anything.''

Most strollers were well aware of the incident, except for a few details that have been omitted from Soviet press reports: the pilot's age, 19, which brought exclamations of surprise and admiration from some Russians, and the fact that he had landed not at an airport but at the foot of the Kremlin wall. The official press agency Tass said only that he had landed ''in Moscow.''

Soldiers and policemen who were asked their opinion stared stonefaced, or shook their heads.

''I'd rather keep my opinions to myself,'' said an army major who wore a set of wings among his insignia. 'Send Him Home,' Boy Says

But most of those encountered on the sunny square cheerfully offered their thoughts on what should be done with the young interloper.

''Send him home,'' said a boy in a group of 14-year-old students visiting Moscow from Kazan, in the Tatar Republic.

But a friend interrupted: ''He has to pay for this. He knows where his border ends; he knows where ours starts. He did it intentionally.'' ''You have to take into account why he did it,'' another teen-ager said.

A World War II veteran from Donets Basin, his suit decked with medals, was sympathetic, saying: ''Who knows, maybe he defected and came here for protection. That he flew here is, of course, a crime. But as I said, maybe he came here to seek asylum.'' 'Purely a Provocation'

A Ukrainian teacher from Donyetsk, strolling in the square with his young son in tow, favored stern treatment.

''I think it was purely a provocation,'' he said, speculating that it was timed to embarrass Moscow just when Warsaw Pact political and military leaders were meeting in East Berlin.

''I think our Government will show firmness with him,'' the teacher said. ''There is a law against violating our borders, and it is a strong one.''

He also approved of the Politburo decision to shake up the military command in response to the flight.

''People were punished for this, and that's how it should be,'' he said.

A teen-ager waiting in line at the Lenin Mausoleum was undecided about the proper punishment and perplexed about the motivation for the journey. ''If he wanted to come and see our country, see our people,'' he said, ''he could have come on the train.''

We are continually improving the quality of our text archives. Please send feedback, error reports,
and suggestions to archive_feedback@nytimes.com.

A version of this article appears in print on June 1, 1987, on Page A00001 of the National edition with the headline: SOVIET OFFICIAL SAYS GERMAN PILOT MAY BE SENT HOME UNPUNISHED. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe